BigAndy

One of me pet peeves is that Eddie.......107 indeed.........nothing like a 107......... cheers Andy

Charlie, Do you happen to know when the 156 in Provincial is likely to be here? Also, i was thinking - which is dangerous, but would it be possible for extra cost ( one thing you should never mention to C Petty esq I know ) to fit my 156 with EM wheelsets prior to despatch? cheers Andy

Again, not my field, but weren't the 33's fitted with a slightly different plough due to the third rail? cheers Andy

Dribbly.....Wibbly..........same meaning Damian! Back in the days of yore, when Howes were still selling plenty of Heljan spares, I bought a load of sprues and still have a few left. I found that the Heljan ploughs were the easiest to fit and looked the part for the price, but as more and more locos are being produced for GQS, I'm getting near to exhausting me stash. Haven't yet sourced a replacement but Pete Harvey does an etched brass fret with what looks like very nice ploughs - have to fold up and solder though.....ho hum...... cheers Andy

Respray and detail of mine on post #1250. I stripped the whole coach, but found that the paint fell off after the dot4/IPA bath, so can't imagine the numbers being any different - just be careful when removing them bearing in mind how easy it was to remove the paint...... cheers Andy

But Sulzer's look so dribbly with them fitted!! cheers Andy

Agreed. Not that I know one thing about market economics or such like, but on the face of it, if they were to release the 86 again and indeed more plausibly the 47 at knock down prices, then surely they would sell. Heljan were always very broad with their range of liveries for the 47, so releasing a limited range again would be something I would definitely be interested in - same as re-introducing their spare parts which are like hen's teeth. cheers Andy

Just to add my twopenneth...........I dislike using trackpins, always have, so as I have recently been tracklaying on Glasgow Queen Street, I thought I'd share. Buy a load of cheap pound shop superglue. When you are tracklaying and need to hold the thing in a particular place, use temporary board pins - y'know, a bit like drawing pins but have multi-coloured plastic tops. Once you're happy with the alignment, tack in place with the superglue - I tend to squeeze in and around the edges of the sleepers. I also use a Cyanoacrylate accelerator, dispensed out of a syringe - makes the glue go off instantly and you can then remove the pins. You can lay yards and yards of track in record time like this, if so desired. Then of course, once ballasting has been completed using the PVA method, the trackwork is going nowhere fast. Simples. Easy to do, cheap and cheerful but stops any unsightly track pins or holes in sleepers etc. cheers Andy

Shame about the bucket and the spoon Kev, but would the RA of both locos been suitable for that line? Or was it, I like them so I'm running them?! cheers Andy

I see that they've still got the small deflector plough fitted on the blue/grey sample though! tut tut.......... I've got a couple of the ScotRail versions on pre-order and getting like a kid on the run up to Christmas now! cheers Andy

If life has taught me only one thing Mark, nothing is never straightforward!! cheers Andy

Thanks for putting that up Bob. Makes me a bit relieved that my own measurements weren't that far off the mark. 6" to wide doesn't sound a lot, but when you combine that with the skinny bogies like you say, it makes the whole coach look terribly top heavy. At least I now know exactly how much to cut out from the centre of the module - 2.7mm. cheers Andy

I'm in the planning stages for building some 101's for Glasgow Queen St. My own thoughts on this are to use the Lima/Hornby bodies ( plenty of which I've picked on Ebay ) and for motorising them, I've settled for using the new Replica chassis : http://www.replicarailways.co.uk/die-cast-chassis/chassis-variants ( usual disclaimers apply ) They supply both the 57' and 64' chassis varaints, from which you can build pretty much any DMU you fancy. There are a few things not absolutely spot on with the Lima bodies, mainly the cab front windows, but these issues can be sorted out reasonably easily and is far easier to fix than the issues surrounding the Bachmann 101. cheers Andy

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Excellent first day today - I've talked to that many people, I hardly got any modelling done! Hey Ho, that's what demo's are for though, talking to the public and swapping ideas. Dave on the other hand has managed to airbrush the bottom green band on his Hymek - I think he's going for broke tomorrow and spraying on the dark green upper............and before anyone mentions that Hymeks never got into GQS, this is for his own layout! cheers Andy

As far as I know Tel, John is coming over from N.Wales tomorrow to see the show. Bringing the Mother-in-Law with him, but she, my wife and daughter will be doing 'Ladies wot lunch' whilst he comes to the exhibition! cheers Andy

Looking good there Jeremy. Are you planning on putting actual wires in eventually or leaving just the posts and gantry's? I'm undecided in 2mm whether it looks better with or without! Cetainly, whenever I see photos taken from a distance of the real thing, which would be the equivalent of viewing a layout in 2mm, you can barely see any wires, if at all......... *Tin can.........can opener............worms everywhere!* cheers Andy

It's Ok Ray, you won't need the snow chains! It's all well thawed and gone now, with the forecast for the weekend although being a bit damp with some rain forecast, temperatures are set to be around 10 - 11 degrees - positively tropical! Looking forward to seeing 59th and Rust, great bit of modelling and a wonderful atrmosphere as per your photo above. cheers Andy

Quick bump. Macclesfield show is this weekend - two days away! I'm still putting transfers onto the latest loco for the Glasgow Queen St (EM) fleet.....then it's got to have a final coat of varnish........will it be finished on time? If you want to see the latest loco for the layout makes it onto the stand, plus the Oxford Rail MK3a that I've cut about and finished in ScotRail blue stripe, get down to the show this weekend - it's always a good do, so stop by and say hello to myself or Dave on the plastic abuse roadshow. Oh, and the restaurant is well worth stopping off at for some tasty refreshments. Cheers Andy

A few of us were planning on modelling Crianlarich to scale, in Em, so we went up there in 2010, took a shedload of photos and measured the whole area up. It was only when we looked at an OS map and Google Earth, that we realised it was going to be something in the region of 36 feet in length......and this was planned on being an exhibition layout! That did incorporate half of the viaduct across the town though. We also figured that in order to reduce the amount of operators, we needed to make it a roundy roundy. That however meant a flying junction and split level fiddle yards for the Oban lines and Fort Bill lines, so that they could join up again at the Glasgow end of the yard.....the layout would have needed to be at least 12 feet in width to facilitate that. That's when we shelved it and Glasgow Queen St ( Em) was born. Regardng your backscene connundrum, we took a load of panoramic digital shots of the surrounding country at Crianlarich, which involved a lot of hiking to find the best vantage points and where one of our number ( who shall remain nameless, stumbled into a bog - right up to his Trossachs....) The intention was to create a photo realistic backscene ala Black Country Blues, however we never got as far as costing it out, so that may be prohibitive. I certainly agree though that backscenes can either make or break a layout - it might be something to look into. Andy Y may be able to help further as I think he had some dealings with the backscene on BCB's. cheers Andy

I've seen that Photo Bob, from what I remember the blue stripe was a lot darker on that particular MK3 - almost a BR Rail Blue and then as you say, they settled for the lighter blue ( Provincial Light Blue ) in the end. cheers Andy

Got me interested what dubscottie posted, as Butler Henderson says above, they were fitted as a direct recommendation following Polmont. So I've had a look around to see if any were fitted whilst the DBSO's were in blue/grey, and I haven't found any. If anyone can find a photo of one in Blue/grey, with plough fitted, post it up as a lot of the ScotRail stock was being actively repainted in 1985 into blue stripe - even if it was a short period, it would be interesting to see. cheers Andy

As can be seen from the demos section, I'm going to be there with Dave from the 'Glasgow Queen Street (Em)' team, and our plastic abuse roadshow. Plenty of our stock on display that will be running (hopefully!) on GQS next year and also of important note, is that Ken Ball - well known architectural modeller is retiring from the exhibtion circuit after 60 years! He's decided at the outrageously young age of 87 that he's had enough of setting up/knocking down, BUT he is still taking commisions ( I should think so as well ). This is a great opportunity to come and have a chat with Ken, see some of his wonderful scratch built buildings and wish him well for the future at the place where it all started for him all those decades ago. cheers Andy

Event Name: Macclesfield Model Railway Exhibition Address: SK10 2EE Day 1: 10/3/2018 Opening times Day 1: 10:00 - 17:00 Day 2: 11/3/2018 Opening times Day 2: 10:00 - 16:30 Prices: Adult £6.00, accompanied children FREE (under 16). : Website: https://www.macclesfieldmrg.org.uk Disability access: Yes Car parking: Yes Organising body: Macclesfield Model Railway Group Organiser: S. Horrocks A friendly exhibition with model railways in scales from Z to G. Traders supplying a wide range of model railway products. KEN BALL will be making his final exhibition appearance with a display of buildings of old Macclesfield. Excellent refreshments - everything from a coffee to a Sunday roast! NEW THIS YEAR - VINTAGE BUS SERVICE (from Macclesfield Station via the town centre to the venue) - see web site for timetable. Layouts Z 8]Republic Steel N 8]Marx Engels Platz 8]Todmorden Midland OO9 8]Negarth 8]Pen-y-Graig OO 8]Bodmin 8]Carminster 8]Eastgate 8]Happy Valley 8]Newhaven Harbour 8]MMRG Raffle Layout 8]Westmoor Junction HO 8]59th and Rust 8]Euro Fracht Zentrum O 8]Jennings Sidings GN15 8]The Old Works 1:32 – 1:700 8]Habbaniya Demos / Displays Mark Henshaw - 148th N Gauge Stock Building Andy Clayton - EM Gauge Modelling Ken Ball – Old Buildings of Macclesfield Robert Seaton – Meccano Locos Traders ABC Model Railways Axminster Tools Bespoke Sign & Print Book Law Publications Country Park Models Country Scenes & Trees Direct Train Spares EBMA Hobby & Craft High Lane Model Railways Linda Tinker Railway Books MMRG Members’ Sales North Western Models Online Models SMTF Sweets of Yesteryear The Junction Box

All depends on how OR designed the model. Mostly these days, 3d scanning is employed - in which case it is a complete mystery how it came out so wrong............If it's entered into CAD from drawings and measurements, then whoever was at the business end of the tape measure kinda has some explaining to do. cheers Andy